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Physics 10
UCSD
Falling Stuff
Physics 10
UCSD
Do Falling Objects Accelerate?
• It sure seems like it!
– Starts from rest, goes faster and faster....
• What about a feather, though?
– Air resistance, drag
– Terminal velocity
– What if we could get rid of the air?
• What’s responsible for the downwards force?
– If it’s accelerating, then a force is acting:
F = ma
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Mass vs. Weight
• Mass is reluctance to accelerate (mass  inertia)
• Weight is the force exerted by gravity
– Go to the moon: Does your mass change?
Does your weight change?
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Acceleration Due to Gravity
• At the earth’s surface, all objects experience the
same acceleration from gravity!
“g”= 9.8m/s2 = 32 ft/s2
• If the acceleration due to gravity is indeed
universal, then...
Since F = ma, the gravitational force must be
proportional to mass.
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Golf Ball vs. Bowling Ball
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Which one is more massive?
Which one experiences more gravitational force?
Which one is most reluctant to accelerate?
How do they respond to a gravitational force?
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A Logical Argument
Consider two identical
falling objects
Now imagine two more,
connected together with a tiny
thread
Mass of each = M
Total Mass = 2 M
But they all have the same acceleration!
Force on the joined balls must be twice the force on one of
them, since the mass doubled but the acceleration stayed the
same.
Conclusion: Gravitational force must be proportional to mass
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Physics 10
How Do We Know the Accelerations are the Same?
Experimental tests show the
Universality of Free Fall is
the same for different
materials to within
0.00000000001%
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Force Exerted by Gravity
If the gravitationally induced acceleration is the same for all
objects at the surface of the Earth, then
Force exerted by gravity = (mass)  (acceleration due to gravity)
Fgravity = m g = WEIGHT, where g = 9.8 m/s2
For a mass of 100 kg, force from gravity at Earth’s surface is
F = 100 kg  9.8 m/s2 = 980 Newtons.
(An apple weighs about 2 N, a golf ball weighs 1.4 N)
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Said Another Way....
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•
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Gravitational force is proportional to mass
F = ma gives an object’s responding acceleration
Divide both sides of the equation by “m”
a = F/m
Both numerator and denominator are proportional
to “m”, if force is gravity
• SO....acceleration is the same, regardless of the
mass
• We’ll return to this point when we consider
General Relativity!
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Physics 10
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Falling Objects Accelerate
• Ignoring air resistance, falling objects near the
surface of the Earth experience a constant
acceleration of 9.8 m/s2.
• That means if you drop something it goes faster
and faster, increasing its speed downwards by
9.8 m/s in each passing second.
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Gravitational Force is Acting All the Time!
• Consider a tossed ball.... Does gravity ever switch
off?
• As a ball travels in an arc, does the gravitational
force change?
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An Example of the Reductionist Approach
• By breaking the motion into independent parts,
analysis is simplified!
• The horizontal and vertical motions are
independent
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Components of Motion
• Break the motion into 2 aspects, “components”
– Horizontal
– Vertical
• Is there a force acting in the horizontal direction?
• Is there a force acting in the vertical direction?
• Does the ball accelerate in the horizontal
direction?
– Does its horizontal velocity change?
• Does the ball accelerate in the vertical direction?
– Does its vertical velocity change?
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Projectile Motion
• All objects released at the same time (with no
vertical initial velocity) will hit the ground at the
same time, regardless of their horizontal velocity
• The horizontal velocity remains constant
throughout the motion (since there is no horizontal
force)
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Some Exercises
• A ball falls from rest for 4 seconds. Neglecting air resistance,
during which of the 4 seconds does the ball’s speed increase
the most?
• If you drop a ball from a height of 4.9 m, it will hit the ground
1 s later. If you fire a bullet exactly horizontally from a height
of 4.9 m, it will also hit the ground exactly 1 s later. Explain.
• If a golf ball and a bowling ball (when dropped from the same
height) will hit your foot at the same speed, why does one hurt
more than the other?
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Doing the Numbers
• Imagine dropping an object, and measuring how fast
it’s moving over consecutive 1 second intervals
• The vertical component of velocity is changing by
9.8 m/s in each second, downwards
• Let’s approximate this acceleration as 10 m/s2
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Starting from rest, letting go:
Time
Interval
Acceleration
(m/s2 down)
Vel. at end of
interval
(m/s down)
0–1s
10
10
1–2s
10
20
2–3s
10
30
3–4s
10
40
4–5s
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After an interval t, the
velocity changes by an
amount at, so that
vfinal = vinitial + at
How fast was it going at the
end of 3 sec?
vinitial was 20 m/s after 2 sec
a was 10 m/s (as always)
t was 1 sec (interval)
vfinal = 20 m/s + 10 m/s2  1 s
= 30 m/s
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Starting from rest, letting go:
Time
Interval
Acceleration
(m/s2 down)
InitFinal
Velocity
(m/s down)
The average velocity in
the interval is just
Average
Velocity
(m/s down)
Vavg = ½(vinitial + vfinal)
0–1s
10
0  10
1–2s
10
10  20
15
2–3s
10
20  30
25 So v = ½ (10+20) m/s
avg
5 For the 1 – 2 s interval,
= 15 m/s
3–4s
10
30  40
35
4–5s
10
40  50
45
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vi = 10 m/s
vf = 20 m/s
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Physics 10
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Starting from rest, letting go:
Time
Acceleration Final
Average
Dist.
Final
Position
Interval (m/s2 down) Velocity
Velocity
moved
(m/s down) (m/s down) (m down) (m down)
0–1s
10
10
5
5
5
1–2s
10
20
15
15
2–3s
10
30
25
25
45
3–4s
10
40
35
35
80
4–5s
10
50
45
45
125
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This can all be done in shorthand
• The velocity at the end of an interval is just (the
starting velocity) plus (the time interval times the
acceleration):
vfinal = v(t) = vinit + at
• The position at the end of an interval is just (the
starting position) plus (the time interval times the
average velocity over the interval):
x(t) = xinit + vavgt
• Since vavg = ½(vinit + vfinal), and vfinal = vinit + at,
= xinit + ½(vinit + vinit + at)t, or
x(t)
x(t) = xinit + vinitt + ½at2
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An aside on units and cancellation
What happens if you multiply an acceleration by a time?
Units of acceleration are m/s2, units of time are s
m
m
Result is m2  s = ss
s=
s
s
And this has units of velocity
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Summary
• Velocity refers to both speed and direction
• Acceleration means a change in velocity
• Mass is a property of objects that represents their
reluctance to accelerate
• If an object is accelerating, it’s being acted on by an
unbalanced force, and F = ma
• Gravity causes all objects to suffer the same acceleration,
regardless of their mass or composition
• Gravitational acceleration only affects the vertical
component of motion – think in terms of components
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Assignments
– HW 2: due Friday (4/18):
• Hewitt 11.E.16, 11.E.20, 11.E.32, 11.P.5, 2.E.6, 2.E.11, 2.E.14,
2.E.36, 2.E.38, 3.E.4, 3.E.5, 3.E.6, 3.E.19
• turn in at lecture, or in box outside SERF 336 by 3PM
– Read Hewitt Chapters 2, 3, 4
• suggested order/skipping detailed on website
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